The Story of Antonio and Maria
by aquashiram14
Summary: Based on the Pokestar studios movie: "Love and Battles 3". My favorite movie from the collection, it's actually really emotional. OneShot.


**Every day I am here, in the same place. I guess it's hard to remember sometimes, when you do the same thing every day. I cannot hear my footsteps, but I can see around me, and I can see the little kids laughing and holding large tufts of cotton candy, gripping the hands of their parents as they rush towards the spinning teacups. There are older people here too. Elderly couples are content to sit on a bench, or perhaps play one of the game and then laugh about how rusty they are at their bottle cap tossing skills.**

**And then there are those who are not so young, but not so old. Like me. They are in the middle, standing before a path that splits into many different ways. Some of them have already picked a particular way, their arms around another and as close as they can possibly be. My heart catches within me. I used to be that person. I used to feel that way. My days were filled with wonder then, each day a new day, each morning a bright morning and each night a night of music and tranquil silence.**

**But then I lost everything, and each day is the same, each morning harsh and garish, and each night is eerily empty and devoid of anything that I once cherished.**

**The days blend together like similar colors, if my memories had colors. All I can remember is that I wake up each morning to his smiling face and then it is all gone, and then I wake up again and I see him again. It is as if I wake and I dream, and I fall asleep and I wake, and it makes little sense. It is grief, simple grief, which keeps my mind from realizing that he is gone and there is nothing I can do.**

**My head turns and my feet wander, separate from my mind which wanders upon a different path, and when I return to myself, I am standing in front of the Ferris wheel. No one pays much mind to me, and it has always been that way. Each day I am here, every day I am here, and no one really notices.**

**I confessed my love on the Ferris wheel. I can remember that much. And then after that, we knew that it was love and we knew that it was the kind of love that never stops loving. But now there is nothing left here at the Ferris wheel except empty memories and empty cars. There is no line, and the man holds no tickets in his hand. He is lonely.**

**I turn around, willing myself to leave where there are no more feelings, and then I see him standing there, hair teased gently by a breeze that I cannot feel. There is a blank stare on his face, but it is him.**

"**Antonio."**

**My voice sounds so ugly to me. Have I not spoken? How long has it been? It is harsh and grating and a rasp that barely makes any sense. I stare at the floor and then I look back up at him. "Antonio!" I scream in that terrible voice. "Antonio, what are you doing here?"**

**In front of him is a Smeargle with a red bowtie. He lifts up a paw, motioning for me to be quiet. "Stop it, Maria, stop being so loud!"**

**I recoil in shock. "You're talking!"**

"**Oh come on! There's a ghost standing behind you. Doesn't a talking Pokémon seem a bit tame compared to that?" the Smeargle says. There is an understanding in the deep brown of his eyes. Like he is some sort of all-knowing god in the form of a mere Pokémon.**

"**That's right," I whisper. "Last year, he…"**

"**He died!" the Smeargle finishes, and a painful pang reverberates throughout me and shakes me to my very core. "But he wanted to come and see you, and so I took him back here. Unfortunately, there was a bit of an accident, and he lost his memory…"**

**I cannot believe it. Antonio is here to see me. But then why doesn't he recognize me? I stare at him, trying to make him believe that it is me. But he is staring at a little girl eating cotton candy. Even as he tries to touch the cotton candy, the girl does not seem to notice.**

"**Maria, listen to me! He can't remember you. He can't remember anything! You'll have to battle, just like you two always did, and just like how you two first met!" the Smeargle cries earnestly. "Woo him with words of love, Maria, and speak as you always spoke with him. Then perhaps he might remember all the faster! You must do this before the sun sets and you wake up as you always do!"**

**I want Antonio back here to stay with me forever. Blankly I nod, and I reach into my pocket and withdraw a dusty Poke ball, cold and tarnished from disuse. Still, I remember the Pokémon within. Strange that I can remember the Pokémon and not how she came to me. All I know is that this Pokémon was an important Pokémon, a part of an ancient myth. And then when I took a break from training, I met Antonio…**

"**Go! Reshiram!" I cry, doing my little back step and twirl.**

**How did I remember that?**

**The Smeargle nods with approval and then proceeds to use Nasty Plot, a haze of purple circling his head.**

**I have to say something to Antonio. He is mute, and he seems to have forgotten even how to speak. I must be the person to talk. "Antonio!" I cry, throwing my heartfelt emotions into every syllable. Every letter. "Antonio! I love you! I love you so much! Please, Antonio, don't you remember me? I love you!"**

**He says nothing and continues staring at me with that awful stare. I want to scream louder, but I must command my Reshiram. I won't harm the Smeargle for now. "Stay still, Reshiram," I say. "Don't attack until I tell you to."**

**Reshiram replies with her singing, beautiful cry. It has been so long since I've heard it.**

**I decide to try something else. "Don't you remember Reshiram? Don't you remember her, at least? It's Reshiram! You always treated her so sweetly and spoke words of love to her! Whenever you came to see me, you would always greet Reshiram with a hug and a smile! Come on, Antonio, Reshiram!"**

**Briefly a light flickers in his eyes but then it is gone. I am frustrated beyond words, and it hurts me so much.**

**Smeargle uses Nasty Plot yet again.**

**Reshiram looks questioningly at me, but I shake my head and she nods. She understands. Reshiram always understands.**

**I point behind Antonio. "The Ferris wheel!" I cry, and I am halfway ready to literally cry. "Don't you remember the Ferris wheel? That is an important place…it has always been the most important place… I come here to the amusement park every day and I look at the Ferris wheel… Ever since I lost you, I never stopped thinking about that day. I love you, Antonio! Please!"**

"…**Ma…ria…" Antonio murmurs, but he shakes his head. He looks up at me helplessly.**

"**He's almost remembered," says the Smeargle urgently. "Please, Maria, try harder. He knows he knew you once…he's trying to remember! Help him out. Try! Try one more time! Knock me out! Win the battle!"**

"**Okay, Reshiram! Fusion Flare!" I cry, pointing.**

"**Aoooooo!" Reshiram sings, and summons a ball of flame. The Smeargle does not look afraid. Instead, he gives a triumphant smile and nods before the flames envelope him. For a few seconds, the flames are blinding, and I wonder how no one has noticed me and this big ball of fire. How puzzling.**

**The flames dissipate and Smeargle is left, fainted. Antonio kneels beside him and revives him, and then looks up at me. "You won," he says, but he does not say it the way he used to.**

**And so I pour my heart out. The sun is beginning to dip into the sky. This is my last chance. There are tears making their way out of the corners of my eyes. I want to stay with Antonio forever. I can't leave him. "Antonio, I love you," I say, and I'm not screaming, nor am I pleading. I am simply speaking, and I can remember now, all these days, drifting through the amusement park as if I myself was a ghost, wishing he were here. "Every single day since you left I've missed you so much. I love you and I'd give anything for you. Antonio, I love you so much…so much!"**

"**Maria?"**

**I look up, the world shimmering through the film of tears. "Antonio," I whisper.**

"**Maria! Maria, it's you!" Antonio is smiling and crying at the same time, crying in unison with me. "I thought…I thought… I came here to see you, get you, to save you from wandering in a world you shouldn't be in for all eternity… But you changed, Maria…I never…"**

"**Did I…did I look that bad?"**

**Smeargle speaks up now. "When Antonio died, Maria, you don't know it, but losing him caused your own last breath as well… It was as if you couldn't bear living along, and so you breathed your last so as to pass through that door the living cannot pass through. Every day you have wandered through the amusement park, a ghost yourself, clinging to memories that hold no happiness for you, only grief. Antonio pleaded with me to come and get you, but you had changed so much. You had lost your body and your mind. Tell me, Maria, do you remember anything? Anything at all?"**

"**No." And I knew this…but I suppose I dismissed it and attributed it to the sadness I had felt until now. The mind is strange that way, giving things illogical connections and relating other things together that do not belong. "I can't remember yesterday…or the day before that…"**

"**I thought so. But seeing Antonio back here caused you to remember everything in the shock of seeing him here and smiling! But when Antonio saw you, you had pretty much lost your body and mind and the shock of that caused him to lose his own memory." Smeargle draws himself up straighter, and to me he is not a Pokémon, but some sort of angel from a world that is not this one. "In any case, six one way, half a dozen another, and we're back where we started. Maria…come with us. You don't belong here anymore."**

"**I'm dead, aren't I?" I ask, but I am not surprised. Deep down, I knew it all along. But my mind was strange and so I did not think I was. No wonder no one notices me… No wonder this place always seemed so different and so cold.**

"**We are," Antonio replies. "I came to get you… Maria, please come with me."**

"**Where are we going?" I ask.**

"**To a world not so different from this one." Antonio holds out his hand. "It is not terrible, nor is it anything to fear. It is simply a new world that we can live in forever. We can be there always next to each other. Please, Maria, will you come with me? I've finally found you."**

**I take his hand and we begin to walk. I notice that we are walking into the sky on a path the living cannot see. "I'm not afraid, Antonio…I'm not afraid as long as I can be with you. I don't really care where we go. I just always wanted to be with you…"**

"**There's an amusement park there, you know," says Antonio. "And there is a Ferris wheel."**

**I look back at the world I cannot be in anymore, and I notice that the Poke ball is still there, but it hangs open and is rolling about uselessly along the streets. Reshiram is not here anymore. She was not dead as I was, I realize, and now that I have truly departed, she has left to wherever she wants to go.**

"**Goodbye, Reshiram," I whisper.**

**Smeargle smiles. "Don't worry about her. She will never forget you."**

"**Will I soon forget her?"**

"**I suppose it depends on what you decide to remember and forget. It is a new world and a new life for you. You can shape it however you want to, as all living beings can."**


End file.
